The order by U.S. District Court Judge Michael Watson on Tuesday was widely viewed as increasing the chances that Republican Gov. John Kasich would face a third-party opponent in this fall's election.

Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted and the state appealed Friday.

Spokesman Matt McClellan said Husted seeks to clarify how Watson wants him to proceed and is not asking him to weigh in on the constitutionality of the law. Watson called for reverting to third-party rules set by a 2013 Husted directive, a directive that McClellan said has expired.

"We don't want to apply old rules to new elections," McClellan said.

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Watson's ruling was a victory for Ohio Libertarians, who challenged the constitutionality of a law signed in November that established criteria for qualifying as a political party and maintaining ballot status. Ohio's old rules were found unconstitutional in 2006.

Critics of the law dubbed it the "John Kasich Re-election Protection Act," arguing it put new retroactively imposed hurdles in front of third parties in the midst of seeking to make the 2014 ballot. No minor party operating in the state received the percentage of votes in the last election that the new law would have required to remain a qualified party this year.

Watson acknowledged "Ohio's interests in regulating ballot access so as to prevent ballot overcrowding, voter confusion, and frivolous candidacies" but said he could see no harm in waiting to apply the law to future elections, rather than applying the new rules retroactively to this year's contest.

Third parties argued the new law would deny them the opportunity for a primary. Without one, minor-party candidates would be required to collect about 30,000 signatures to get on the general election ballot rather than getting on automatically. They also could lose the fundraising and name recognition benefits of a spring primary.

McClellan said since the old rules were tossed in 2006, the secretary's office has issued rules for third party qualification on a yearly basis. The directive Husted issued for 2013 applied only 2013, so it is unclear whether it's still legal for 2014, he said.